Gay & Lesbian Travellers

Germany is a magnet for schwule (gay) and lesbische (lesbian) travellers, with the rainbow flag flying especially proudly in Berlin and Cologne. There are also sizeable communities in Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich.

Legal stuff: Homosexuality has been legal since the late 1960s. Same-sex marriage is legal.

Attitudes tend to be more conservative in the countryside, among older people and in the eastern states.

As elsewhere, Germany's lesbian scene is less public than its male counterpart and is centred mainly on women's cafes and bars.

Gay pride marches are held throughout Germany in springtime; the largest, in Cologne and Berlin, draw hundreds of thousands of rainbow revellers and friends.

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